


From Walks Of Life, We Unite (Diverse Super Hero Story)

by Gayboiohio



Series: From All Walks Of Life We Unite Universe [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: @GayBoiOhio, Also on Tumblr, Asexual Character, Cottage core vibes, Evenki Character, F/F, F/M, ITS WILD, Indian Character, M/M, Native Character, Schizophrenic character, Stendenhal Syndrome, Tamil Character, Tamil Nadu, Trans Character, ftm character, ill rarely update bit I’ll try, lesbian charecter, set in 2035, super powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:15:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26058556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gayboiohio/pseuds/Gayboiohio
Summary: Many charecters from around the world, from  all backgrounds, unite. They fight the many evils they face with their super powers. (Will update every other saturday (Dec. 26, Jan. 9, Jan 23 etc.), hopefully)
Relationships: Later relationship will develop
Series: From All Walks Of Life We Unite Universe [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2034754
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12





	1. Karthika’s Awakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m also on tumblr at Gayboiohio.tumblr.com  
> And my story Blog (for this story) is diverseheros.tumblr.com

## Karthika

**Name: Karthika Kumar**

**Superpower: Any conceivable power, but only one at a time**

**Sexuality: Asexual**

**Gender: Female**

**Mental disorder: Mild schizophrenia**

**Hometown: Chennai, India**

**Race: Indian**

**Suit: Traditional Indian Kurti with gold embroidery that has the power to morph into whatever form is the most conventional for the situation**

I woke up in my bed in the our town house, and looked out the window, it was a beautiful day, the perfect for my wedding. I opened the window, warm January air flowing in from the beautiful Erode district of Tamil Nadu. I looked out, past the my wonderful groom’s house into a field with a beautiful view of Mt. Ekkarai Malai.

The green grass was long all around us, and the wildflowers were beautiful. Although, as I looked I couldn’t help but think how much of this was the result of colonialism and the industrialization of my country. It was a thought I often had pondered. I shook my head to clear myself of this thought and watched as my father and his friends gaily walked to the banquet hall in downtown.

They had started to set it up last night after the multitude of traditions we had performed and now they were finalizing the decorations. I saw the sun rising over the mountain, the orange tendrils streaming throughout the country side. The colors flooding the sky, adding a glossing of vibrancy to the countryside. It was now the day of the wedding and we had to begin our ceremonies almost immediately.

I walked out to the kitchen greeting my many family members and friends. We all sat sipping our chai and eating our Dosa at the table. Once we had finished our crispy rice crepes and the delicious coconut chutney to go with them; my favorite, we split into two groups. Sita Athai, Anbarasi Athai, and Ezhil Athai went onto the porch to set up the area for MangalaSnanam.

“Karthika! It's time to get dressed!” I shuddered, why did she say it so loud. I sat my tea down with a blissful sigh nevertheless. I was ecstatic, I was getting married. The first step had begun. I walked into the Living room area where my cousins and mother had all of my attire set up. I stood near them, stripping down to my petticoat. They all gathered around, holding my six yards of crimson fabric in their hands. They started by tucking the plain end of the fabric into my matching red petticoat, starting just below my belly button. They wrapped the fabric around my waist once counter-clockwise, to create the first part of the pattern. They started the pleats, creating the seven, five inch pleats that wrapped around my waist.

Once we had been purified and preformed the beginning rituals, we walked up to the ornate stage set up in front of the chairs and performed Kashi Yatra where my fiancé threatened to leave and go on a pilgrimage. It was all so thrilling in the moment, but when the time came for my father to promise me to him so he wouldn’t leave I had started to feel a little anxious. It was a little feeling, in the pit of my stomach, but I suppressed it and pressed on.

After that we started the Oonjal, the final portion of the wedding. We started on the stage at the front of the room, carrying the garland we were to lay upon our fiancé. Once we had made it to the stage and had presented the garlands it all started rushing to me.

I was going to get married, was expected to have children, and, even worse, sex. From the first time my mom gave me the sex talk, I knew I was different, I knew that there was some thing weird about me. I wished I was normal, but I wasn’t. All my friends talked about being excited about getting married because they could have sex with their husbands but I was different. It never really excited me but really kinda made me queasy.

Later in my life I learned about Asexuality. It was a taboo topic here in India, just like everything queer, but I had done some research and found out about it. I was what was considered sex repulsed asexual, meaning I had no interest in sex, and it disgusted me.

For most of my life I kept this secret but as I got into my later years of highschool I started telling close friends. The general consensus was that I just needed to find the right guy. This irked me, more often then not it would set me off into a socially isolated episode of my schizophrenia where I spiraled into depression. I would isolate, fearing my aggression would bubble to the surface, I would lash out at anyone helping me, often feeling terrible after the fact. It was something I learned to deal with. My schizophrenia was diagnosed by a doctor when I was young and, because of the stigma around neuron divergency in India it was never really addressed. But then It happened.  
It was a large source of shame for my family and we almost never talked about it. I rembered it in great deltail however, i remember sitting in temple, kneeling in front of the altar to Vishnu. I looked up, stealing glances around the room watching my family so that some as me when I looked over to my group of cousins I saw my grandma other. Problem was, she had been dead for six years.

I screamed, running back, she had a knife sticking from her chest. I back pedeled furiously, trampling all over my relatives. I fell, tripping on my father. He reached to grab me and comfort me but it wasn’t him. He was a zombie, not the Bollywood green skin kinda, a realistic, flesh flaiiing of the bone, hair coming off in patches zombie. I screamed punching forward, I felt my fathers bone crack, presumably breaking. I remember kicking and screaming, being dragged out, being put into an ambulance

I think I remember some sort of sedative, but it gets kind of hazy afterwards. After that episode my parents had a long talk. There was screaming, yelling, and of course talks of “alternative schooling”, but in the end they reluctantly started me on my meds and since then, I have been pretty much neurotypical passing.

I did still have the occasional hallucinagenic episode at home but rarely in public. I often had depressive and isolationist outbursts. They were usually accompanied by something that triggered them, and my parents constant bother did not help. My family was wealthy as my dad was a doctor, developing, and bringing widespread use of ultra UN invasive laser assisted procedures, and my mom a nurse working at the largest hospital in Chennai.

This made it so we could easily afford the therapy and medication, but I knew of cousins that had much more severe symptoms and had to be sent to a boarding school because their parents didn’t have enough money to cover treatment. This was often a sad reality in the rural areas of india. Mental disorders go unrecognized until too late, and the care available is often too expensive.

It was nearing the point of the Muhurtum, where the groom puts the mangalsutra and sindoor on me and I was nervous. It had all come back to me and I shut my eyes. I could feel something bubbling up in me. Power, a warmth rising through my core getting hotter each second. When it reached its peak I realize everyone had gone quiet.

I opened my eyes, and what I saw changed my life forever. Everyone was asleep. I was astonished. Did I do that? I realized I had and so many things came back to me. Events from my life, all things that couldn’t really be explained, all accompanied by the same feeling I just had. People falling asleep, I also realized I had flown, or become invisible. Did I have powers? No, I told myself, it couldn’t be. But it was. At that moment I focused on getting out and suddenly, I flew up and out.

At the exact same moment everyone woke up. _What?_ I thought, _how?_ I had no idea but I just decided to use my new found power to fly to my cousin in Delhi. I hadn’t realized that, while my power impressive, flying the two thousand kilometers needed would not be easy. I landed in a corn field, gathering my bearings. I took a deep breath, then focused on Delhi. Well, as it turns out, I wasn’t exactly the best at this and ended up on the outskirts of London.

I recognized the London eye in the distance. I stared to fly, trying to get a better sense of where I was and what I could do. I darted forward, flying in the sky Superman style for maybe ten minutes. I looked down and saw the, London Eye? I had flown farther than I meant to, I looked down at the London eye, suddenly realizing that they all could see me. I suddenly started falling, unable to take control of my powers. I watched in shock as the man on the street under me looked up, raised his hands, and concentrated. I stopped.

“What just happened!" I said astonished, he looked at me with a look on his face somewhere between relieved and confused,

"What do you mean what just happened!? You just fell out of the sky on top of me!" He shot out in one breath, 

"Wait," The man said breathily "Who are you? I know every superhero from here to Edinburgh..."

"I- i'm Karthika, I just- flew? From India..." I sputtered apprehensively.

“Well, um, Miss..” 

“Kumar” I supplied

“Well Miss Kumar, it seems that you have super powers. Would you like to head to my offices? I work with the UN Department of Superhuman abilities. We have been looking for recruits.” 

“Okay, well let’s go I suppose…”

“Great!” He stuck his arm out, hailing a cab. “Hop in,”

“International Maritime Organization please” He said to the taxi driver. I looked over at him.

“International Maritime Organization?” I mouthed to him

“Only UN building in London,” he replied. 

We arrived at the building after about 10 minutes with traffic. After we walked in we arrived at an office with the name ‘Nicholas Johnson’.

“Come in,” he gestured to the door. I walked in and sat down. He gave me the briefing about what I would be doing and the whole world of super heros. 

“So, you in?” He said, resting his CHin on his hands. 

“Definitely.”


	2. Claudia’s Story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It will be a bit until the next chapter, as I am working on writing out a short chapter with this same premise. The chapter might be incorporated as part of this story later but for now it’s separate.

## Whisperet

**Name: Claudia**

**Power: Can talk to animals / control them**

**Sexuality: Classic cottagecore lesbian**

**Gender: Female**

**Hometown: Cork, Ireland**

**Race: Irish**

**Suit: Bunny mask, white/pastel colored old fashoned type dress ( easy to move around in tho) converse**

I was sitting by my warm fireplace in the center of my quaint cottage deep in the woods. It was a cool spring evening and the sounds of nature all around me were pleasing. I looked around my cottage, natural wood walls adorned with tapestry of all kinds. I looked at the beadwork I had gotten on a trip to The States, it had become familiar over the years of me sitting in this spot looking around my house. I had a cup of tea in my hand and was anxiously awaiting the arrival of my newest girlfriend.

We had met at the local flea market in Courtown, the Irish coastal town I had lived outside of for the past three years. She was a local, making her living at the seal rescue here. We bumped into each other while looking at flannel. She had a very different taste from me, but we worked together. She was a goth, beanie-wearing girl, in stark contrast to my classic “cottagecore” lesbian. I wore floral dresses, she wore skinny jeans, but it worked.

She was the longest-lasting girlfriend yet but I had little to no hope that she would last after tonight. I had a secret, I could talk to animals, and while this was a talent easily hidden by my cottage core style and ways, it came time with every new girlfriend to tell her about my powers. This never went down well with them and always ended the relationship. They said I was a freak, or not to be trusted. I had had the mental hospital called many a time, but this time I was hopeful. I heard the firm knock on the door. Giddy, I got up, thinking it was Paisley. I wiped my hands on my skirt, nervous, then opened the door. It wasn’t Paisley.

Instead, it was a rather serious looking Indian woman wearing a striking blue-gray pantsuit. She looked me up and down and said,

"You must be Claudia". I looked at her responded

"Yes, and you are?” in a tone I only use for the occasional door-to-door preacher and conman. It was a stern tone that I had grown to hate as it reminded me of my past childhood trauma. My mother would use a similar tone with me when she caught me being "weird". Oddly she did not seem phased by this and responded,

"Karthika, may I come in, I am here with some rather official business."

She had a slight London accent which was unusual, to say the least, in our small Irish town on the coast. It was the rich accent of someone who recently emigrated from India. It still had some tones and mannerisms of… Tamil, was it? But was masked by the smoothness of a Londoner. We were almost an hour south of Dublin and somewhere where the proper London folk rarely come.

If anything we were avoided by them, given the lasting tension from our conflict in 2021 when three Irish uni students decided they had had enough with the anti-Irish sentiment in The UK. Known as the pub bombings, the English government had placed blame on the Irish Government. That, needless to say, started tensions between certain folks in our respective nations. Nevertheless, I let her in the door and guided her to her seat.

As she sat she looked at me, looking less stressed, and said, shaking her head,

"My, my, for such a lovely woman you sure do cause a lot of paperwork." I looked at her rather puzzled and asked,

"Paperwork? How!" She looked at me rather incredulously and said

"Really, you didn't know? An agent should have been sent years ago. Why, miss, you have superpowers!"

"Yes," I said blatantly. "I know, but what does that have to do with paperwork?"

“Oh, Claudia," she sighed, leaning forward putting her hands on her fabric clad knees. She exuded confidence, and began to explain;

"You've been going around telling lay-folk about your powers leaving me to clean up the mess." I was shocked.

Ever since I was young, it was called weird, wrong, even evil. I tried to suppress it, but it only made things worse. I ended up running away at fourteen. I moved in with my aunt, and I lived with her until I got a degree in business at 22 years old. Since then, I moved into the house I live in now,

“So there’s more of us?” I asked

“Yes,” she said, chuckling slightly, “Here, come with me, I’ll take you to our offices in Cork.”

We walked out, going towards the car. She opened the door to the backseat,

“It’s going to be a long drive,” she said, motioning me to sit in the back seat.

“Why don’t you have offices in Dublin,” I asked. Dublin was the capital of Ireland and much more central to the island.

“Oh, I don’t know, it’s a government organization, who knows why they make their decisions,” Karthika said with a bit of a laugh. I chuckled as I slid into the back seat.

I sat my phone beside me and got comfortable. I was a bit nervous about going to a cork, as I had grown up in an abusive family in Cork. I hadn’t seen my parents in years, but they still lived there, from what I heard. I hadn’t slept much last night, as I was worried about telling Paisley, so I drifted off into sleep rather quickly.

_I opened my eyes to my seventh birthday. I peered Down around the wall separating the living room from the kitchen where my parents were fighting._

_“John! You’re being ridiculous, I’m not going to tolerate you being like this! You’re coming home drunk everyday, even on your only child’s birthday!” I watched in horror as my father slammed his beer can on the table, crushing it._

_“Fine!” He yelled, “Find somewhere else to go! Well have the divorce papers by Monday.”_

_The scene faded into another. I remember this one less, but still very vividly. I was sitting in the big chair in our family room during the Corona pandemic when I was nine. I sat on my laptop, doing my online school when I saw the door handle jiggle. My dad walked in, looking at me. I looked at him,_

_“Weren’t we gonna go out to eat today? I haven’t eaten all day,” I said. This morning, he told me he was taking me to lunch at 1:00, but when one came and passed with no cancellation from him, I assumed he’d at least bring food, so I hadn’t eaten. He looked at me incredulously,_

_“I’ve been out all day getting stuff for you, and all you ungrateful brat can think about is food?”_

_“I’m sorry dad, I just-“_

_“No!” He interjected, “I’m tired of your ungratefulness. I’m done with you doing this! Pack your stuff, you’re going to your mom’s._

_The scene switched again, going to me in a forest. I was about twelve then, and I went into the woods to talk to my friends. My past self looked around, me looking with her. I was surrounded by animals of all kinds._

_There were three rabbits, Puff, Mallow, and Cloud, and a doe and her faun, who I named Ma and Bambi. I talked to them about school, and my friends, with them responding in chips and snuff that I could somehow understand. They spoke to me, understood me, and I stayed with them. I braced myself for what was coming, but I couldn’t change anything as it was merely a memory. My mom walked out of the forest into the clearing we were in._

_“Claudia! What are you doing!” She yelled, obviously angry._

_“Get away from them! Stop pretending to talk to them! You’re just being weird!” She continued. I jumped up, stammering. I walked towards her, she grabbed my hand and slapped me on the cheek._

_“Stop being so weird Claudia, it’s not natural.” She said as she began lecturing me on the topic I had heard a thousand times._

_I listened to her drone on as the scene changed for the fourth time. It was the fateful day when I was fourteen. I was packing my stuff, fitting everything I could into my suitcase. I stuffed my favorite hoodie in there on top of the clothes already contained. I opened the drawer in my nightstand containing about three hundred euros in cash._

_I had been saving up for almost a year, nabbing cash here and there in preparation to run away. I grabbed the last of my toiletries and donned my clothes. I had parked my bike under the window of my room for a quick escape._

_I jumped out of my first story window, attached my stuff to my bike, and pedaled away. I pedaled hard in the cold night for about an hour until I got too tired to go anymore. I was at a loss at where to go until I remembered my aunt. She had been estranged from the family but still lived close with her girlfriend._

_I biked five more minutes until I reached her apartment. I parked my bike and walked up the stairs to her place, Apartment 245. I knocked on the door and waited._

_My aunt opened the door in a purple sweater, her black undercut glinting in the light._

_“Claudia!” She said, surprised, “What are you doing here so late?” I swallowed the fear down in my throat. I looked at my shoes as I started to cry._

_“I- I ran away,” I stuttered through sobs, hugging my aunt as she walked me inside._

“Claudia! It’s okay, it’s just a dream,” Karthika said, with concern in her voice. She was sitting in the seat next to me, holding my arm. I sat up, looking at her with embarrassment on my face. She laughed,

“Claudia, it’s okay, I’m not gonna judge, I have my fair share of problems. You wanna talk about it?” I looked at her; she seemed so caring and sweet,

“No, I think I’m okay, let’s just go in,” Karthika opened her door, getting out. I opened my door as well, meeting her in front of the car. I looked up at the impressive building in front of us. She looked at me.

“Wanna go inside?” She said, smiling.We walked to some office that seemed to be not very often used and I sat down in the chair. She explained the basics of super hero life, and talked to me about my next mission in Rome. 

“So Claudia, I would sure love to have somone like you on the team…” She smiled, “So, you in or what?”

“Of course I’m in, I’m glad to get started”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It will be a bit until the next chapter, as I am working on writing out a short chapter with this same premise. The chapter might be incorporated as part of this story later but for now it’s separate. Also make sure to check me out on tumblr at gayboiohio.tumblr.com and diverseheros.tumblr.com


	3. update!!

This is NOT abandoned i have a chapter that isnt part of this sequence but was charecter request from a friend. Its about a native siberian trans guy and i really like it. As you can imagine, writing about natives is.. hard... so i had to do alot of reaserch to make it perfect. It will be up sometime tommorow so yeah!


	4. Mini Story 1: B’s Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a short chapter about B’s hunt... Idk, nit much more to say

**Name: B Smirnov or би Smirnov**

**Powers: Invisibility, Super Speed**

**Gender: Male (trans ftm)**

**Sexuality: Pansexual**

**Hometown: Siberia, Russia**

**Race: Russian**

**Suit: Plain Black (with grey pieces?)**

I woke up to sun streaming through the windows of my ǯū, or chum. I looked out of the window in the birch bark and deer hide tent to see my dad's smiling face. 

“Hello son!” He said in our native Evenki, smiling from ear to ear. We were out on a hunting trip, a few kilometers north of our usual town, Ekonda. We had been having a great time, using our native techniques in combination with my gifts of invisibility and superspeed from the spirits. 

He left to go away from the tent, letting me get dressed. I put on my binder, one of the few things we had imported from our trade partners in Canada, and then donned my mix of traditional gear and modern underclothes. 

I started by putting on my underclothes and continued with the reindeer hide leggings and moccasins, as well as a deerskin jacket. I opened the door of the chuum and felt the cool air hit me.

It was about 20-ish degrees (Celsius that is) and it was sunny. It was the perfect day for our hunt. 

We went over to our pack of reindeer and mounted them. I got on mine, who was right next to my dad’s. I grabbed my bow, and my pike. I grabbed the latter, a long handled knife and attached it to my back. We were led by the elders and we went off. 

We dismounted when we encountered some reindeer, the bow hunters in our group stayed back when I turned invisible and crept forward. The reindeer ended up hearing me and ran but I caught up and used the pike to kill it. We had great respect for nature so we tried to make it as swift as possible. I let the Bow men pick the rest off after I had ran back. We went and collected the carcasses, hanging them from our pack reindeer and going back to camp. 

We all gathered around a fire and started praying. 

“We thank you, spirits of nature, for bringing us the food we have hunted. We especially thank the swift fox for B’s blessing of swiftness and camouflage.” Once we had finished the prayer we began dressing the first reindeer and cooking the reindeer over an open fire. We started telling stories about the past. 

“Y’know, I’d like to tell you guys about the Siberian revolution. I know you’ve all heard it many times, but it is so important to us.” One of the elders started, “I was part of the resistance, on the front lines. If you could even call them that, it was mostly the work of the new government that got us here. It was the spring of 2024, you were about four years old then B, and we had just heard news of the new restrictions on our hunting lands. Obviously, we weren’t too happy, and after phoning around,” He continued,

“After phoning around we learned that there had been talks of independence throughout other villages. Even in the local governments they had begun talks. So, we all started on our way to the capital of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Krasnoyarsk. Turns out, many people had the same idea. Eventually all Krais west of the Od river had declared independence from the Russians. Naturally our good old dictator Putin wasn’t too happy,” he said with a chuckle,

“We ended up having troops sent our way, but, since all of the Siberian troops had rebelled, they got stopped by the terrain, for some reason they thought tanks could get through here. They were wrong of course. We met the remaining soldiers on foot at the Ob river and had a mini battle. Eventually they had no horses, and no way to escape so they surrendered.” He said, smiling proud at his accomplishment,

“They haven’t threatened us since, and we organized the Coalition Of Siberian States. In fact, I was on the committee that helped decide the name!” He finished with a smile.

We all chuckled, we had heard that story a thousand times over, but I had always found it interesting. 

“So who wants to hear about when B was a wee little boy?” My dad started with a grin on his face. I tackled him, pushing him off the log. I tried to maintain a straight face but we both ended up dissolving in laughter...


	5. Just another update (I know, I know)

Okay, so, basically just for the sake of consistency I extended the end of the first two chapters. I know I need another update and I promise I’m working but it’s not as fun to write this part, so I’m taking longer. I want to give a dead line but I’m not sure, I might say it’ll be done by this weekend but don’t hold me to it. I’m really sorry. Also, I think I’m gonna try to update every other Saturday, so for example, the 26th, and then January 9th, and then January 23 etc.


	6. Kai the Hero

##  **Kai**

**Name: Kai Romulus**

**Superpower: chi manipulation, omni fabrication**

**Sexuality: Gay (nblm)**

**Gender: gender apathetic**

**Mental disorder: walking corpse syndrome**

**Hometown: florence, italy**

**Race: white**

**Suit:**

**-MASK: black masquerade mask**

**-MAIN SUIT: red t-shirt black shorts and black cropped jacket with black over the knee socks and high heels**

Kai was different in so many ways... from their childhood they knew they were different. She became a They… or a He… a Xe, a fae, a ze, or even a she. They were gender apathetic, so as the name suggests Kai didn’t really care. They changed their name, flattened their chest. They grew up, though there was still something different, something so different they hadn’t dared to tell anyone. Nevertheless they had a great life and were thriving in the bustling drag scene of Rome...

I woke up, with sun peeking in from behind the blinds of the east facing windows of my flat. I sat up, stretching out my arms. I looked beside me to my boyfriend lying with his blond hair messed up from his sleep. I stood up, the cool air contrasting with the warmth I had left under the covers. I groaned, hunting for a t shirt on the floor to put on. I found a black graphic-t and slipped it over my head. It was pretty small on me, probably belonging to my boyfriend. 

I walked into the bathroom, taking a nice hot shower and brushing my teeth. I got dressed, putting on a pair of black joggers, and a purple t-shirt with the SPQR logo on the front. It was really nerdy, but when I was younger I grew up watching the Percy Jackson TV series and then read the books. I had really liked the stories, and I t made me feel more… normal. I had always had this shirt and treasured it. 

I walked past my mirror, stopping for a second. I glanced at myself in the mirror and saw myself as a corpse. I started to get panicky, struggling to get back to reality. I tried deep breaths, tried the 54321 senses activity, but nothing was working. I was hyperventilating, curled up on the floor when my dog walked by. He was partially trained as a service dog, and knew what I needed. He layed down beside me, letting me feel his fur and licking me on the face. 

I started laughing at his licks, but I was really grateful for him. It was pretty manageable nowadays but sometimes my walking corpse syndrome would flair up and i would have a panic attack like that. It had started when I was younger, partially from my up bringing. I was the child of a model, and a model agent. So, obviously, my parents were very critical of body image. 

All throughout my child hood I had been held to a standard that no one should be held to, and even after years of therapy I still had issueswith my body. Thankfully, I had gotten my service dog, and although he only really was around at home he helped me if I had a panic attack.

A lot of people are naturally skeptical of ‘Walking Corpse Syndrome’ because it sounds totally made up. The more professional name is Cotard’s syndrome, and it can be due to trauma. In mild cases people have severe body image issues and in more severe cases they actually believe they are dead. 

I thankfully had a relatively mild case, and usually only had body image issues, with the occasional episode of what had happened earlier, where I see myself as disfigured and almost corpse-like. When I was younger and un medicated I would go for a while without eating, partially because of my parents' expectations and partially because of my condition.

Afterwards, I walked into my kitchen, a bit shaken up and poured myself some cereal.

I ate my cereal, mentally planning my day out. I had a few drag shows that night, but for the rest of the day I was free. I needed to go to the grocery store, but other than that I had the day to write and just hang out. I sat down on the couch, turning on the newest episode of the show I had been watching when my phone rang. I picked it up, recognizing the name on the front. It was my friend, Mr Kyoto. He owned a chain of bars in Tokyo and had gotten me on my feet when they had come to visit two years ago. I answered the call,

“Hello!” I answered

“Hi Kai! How are you!” He replied,

“I’m doing good, how are you?” I said, glad my mentor of so long had called to talk. We didn't talk often because of the time difference, but I was always happy to.

”I’m doing amazing! My husband and I are oepnjn a new bar, and we were hoping youd preform!” He said, of course j would say yes, I wouldn't pass up the opportunity for the world.

”Sure! When is it?” I asked, ready to drop everything? He chuckled and replied 

”oh, it's not until this December, but I'm glad you are excited!” We began to work out the details of the event for the next few minutes...

* * *

I sat on my stool, putting the finishing touches on my overzealous drag makeup. I finished up the final sharp lines, and used setting spray to finalize. I finished up my outfit and got up. I was already tried and, although I had an amazing night lip-syncing, I was ready to go home. I stood up and straightened my jacket when the owner of the bar, Bar di Eros, Bianca DeTerro, walked into the dressing room.

I could see how stressed she was from the maroon waves flowing through her. I tried to use my powers of reading, and manipulation, of Chi, or aura to calm her down. My power had definitely come in handy when deescalating situations and when performing for people but mostly it went unnoticed and unused. I also have another power that has proved much more useful. Omni-fabrication, or the power to create objects. 

She walked in and clapped her hands, we all snapped our heads toward her and listened as she started to talk

“Okay! This is the last show of the night guys, I know you are tired, but you have been amazing so keep going!” She sounded like she was trying to be happy, but was very stressed. 

“Kai, you go first” She exclaimed. I got up, and walked on stage.

I was about five minutes into my introduction bit, just kind of talking about my life, a little bit a stand up comedy, when Bianca stepped out and gestured to me. 

“Excuse me for a second,” I said to the crowd, walking to Bianca. 

“Yeah?” I whispered to her 

She explained in frazzled Italian that there was a man that possibly had a gun outside. As she said that and we went backstage to evacuate, we heard screams coming from the main bar. We ran out on stage to see a man holding a pistol aiming it at the crowd.

“Get in the floor!” he shouted. I could see his arua it was dark, like blood, but even darker. He was out for death. As soon as I saw him I acted quickly erecting a massive brick wall between him and the other patrons. I was straining on me but I did what I could to help the citizens. I held it for what felt like forever, until Bianca put her hand on my shoulder. I saw her concentrate as some of the pressure lifted off of me. As soon as I felt it lift off of me she her face scrunched up, like she was bearing the load.

“Run!!” I shouted, looking toward the crowd, as many stared in shock at the manic they had just witnessed. They ran.

I used my powers to hold him in a brick room until La Polizia arrived. They were astonished. After they had detained the criminal and put him in a police car they went to question me. I was struggling to stand after holding such a large structures for a long period of time, and was stammering to explain it when a red haired women dressed in a sleek peach dress walked up behind them. It seemed as though she exudes confidence and that even the pigeons were enthralled. She beckoned the police over and spoke quietly, showing some ID, until they left, more confused than they started.

"Hey," She said brightly, moving twords me "You're Kai Romulus, right?" I was perplexed that she knew my name, considering that I hadn't even told the officers my name.

"Yeah," I started cautiously "And you would be?" She laughed and pulled me in, wrapping an arm around me,

"I'm Claudia, dear," She said sweetly "I'm a friend of Bianca. Here, I'll take you to our offices!" I walked with her and started questioning her about what had just happened.

“So, what organization are you with? Your badge seems to carry a lot of power…” I queried, she looked at me, 

“Well, Kai, I tell people I work with Interpol, as that would grant me access to the security I need, but in reality, I am an a, I am an agent for The Department of Super Human Abilities in the UN.”

”Oh, wow, okay, so you're telling me tha there are like, more superheroes.”

”yeah, definitely. I, for example, can communicate and control animals. I try not to control them, because it seems a little cruel but it is within my ability. Oh, and Bianca, she can use her powers to take some of the strain from somone and transfer it to her.” So it really was her taking the load off of me. It made so much sense now.

We walked for a while until reaching a large office building I knew to be the headquarters for some UN organization. She walked us inside, and guided me to her office. 

“Pardon the mess” she apologized, ”I just got transferred here and haven’t unpacked much.”

“Oh it’s fine,” I said, sitting down in the chair she had just cleared off. 

“So, where do we begin” she said, starting to give me the run down on the organization. 

Once she had finished she passed over some paperwork, 

“So, do you think you want to join us?”

“You know what? Sure, I look forward to working with you”

She chuckled at that and gave me a pen to sign, 

“I look forward to it as well, Kai!”


	7. Chapter 4: Harper Fights Back?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it’s a bit late!

##  Pepper

**Name: Harper Lopez**

**Power: flight, super strength**

**Race: Mexican American**

**Hometown: Mexico City, Mexico (currently lives in Pheonix, Arizona)**

**Suit: Cherry red and lime green striped**

**Gender: Female**

**Mental Disorder: Severe Depression, Anxiety, and Anger issues (I am not sure if that is an appropriate term but please correct me)**

It was a beautiful fall day in Phoenix, Arizona and I had got up extra early to work out this morning. My parents never approved of me working out like I did so I had to do it unbeknownst to them. My parents were hardcore Spanish Catholics and they both thought the place of a women was "In the home" so if a women worked out past the point of being sufficiently skinny it was seen as un acceptable. After getting up and getting dressed I put in my earbuds, turned on some Lizzo and started working out.

Maybe twenty minutes after I started I sat down on my bed, taking out my earbuds.

"HARPER!" I heard my mom yell from downstairs.  _ Shoot _ , I thought. I didn't have enough time to clean up and rest.  _ She's gonna know, _ I realized as I cleaned up as fast as I could and hurried down stairs.

"Yeah, Madre?" I said, nervous. She was standing above the stove making pancakes. She was very insistent on honoring our ancestors and only eating traditional Mexicano foods, but she had a soft spot for pancakes. 

When she was pregnant with me she always would crave pancakes and I guess she had some link in her mind that they were the last remnant of ‘The good old days’ where I wasn't, in her words a ‘repugnante feminista’. I mean, it wasn’t like I was trying to kill all men or something, I just thought that maybe I should have more choices than a homemaker.

She turned to me after taking off the last pancakes. "Have you been ejercitando" She said in disgusted tone,

"Yes, Mom" I said pointedly, "I have been exercising"

"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk" She shook her head, "Hija, you mustn't. It is against dios to do that!" She frowned at me while gesturing to the sky

"Tomorrow at confession you must tell Padre Miguel" she said solemly.

"Okay," I said to her, "I will"

Once she was done with her insufferable lecture I started packing up my stuff for school and grabbed a pancake on the way out.

"Adios Madre!" I yelled as I started to jog to school. I put in my earbuds and started my playlist up.  _ Perfect _ , I thought when Toothpick by I The Victor started playing.

**————————————————————**

I got to school as my second song was ending. I took out my earbuds and looked around the school yard. I could see the cliques obviously divided. You could see the band kids, the drama nerds, the Emo kids, and last but definetly least, the rich jocks. As you would imagine they were stuck up as all get out, and wouldn't tolerate anything that they didn't deem "Patriotic".

Yeah, they were those kids. So, naturally my status as a brown immigrant was unacceptable. It was pretty much a routine for them to yell slurs at me and tell me to "go back to mexico". It was just normal at this point.

I walked in head held high looking confident, while really in my head I was breaking down. I felt like everyone was watching- and judging. I approached my friend, Lisa. I sped up as I got to her, hoping the rich kids didn't notice me. But alas, to be expected, they noticed me at the last second and started their dull barrage of insults. I mean, they couldn't even be creative. As I sat down next to Lisa they started barraging her.

They started cat calling her and talking about how she was too pretty to be friends with a Mexican like me, except they didn’t use such polite language. She was a really pretty girl, with shoulder length auburn hair and chocolate brown eyes. Today she was in a standard outfit of hers consisting of a Blue Flannel tied loosely around her waist and a Gray tshirt. She looked over to me and patted the ground next to her for me to sit next to her. She was nearly deaf, so as I sat down I started signing,

"Sorry about them," I signed with a resigned look on my face.

"It's fine Harper. They're just assholes." She signed, smirking

"So, how was your weekend?" I asked with a smile. Her eyes lit up and she started to talk to me about how she saw some movie from a few years ago. I kinda drifted off and saw a few guys hanging over in a corner. They were eyeing me and Lisa and I saw some kind black object poking out of the closest ones back pack. He looked away quickly after he noticed I was looking at him. I looked over to Lisa.

"Hey, let's move to a different spot" I signed.

She looked at me weirdly when the bell rang to begin school. We both walked into our first period, Gym.

Our gym teacher started telling us about how we were doing doge ball today. I mean, honestly, how long does it take to explain dodge ball. Once we started Lisa and I went to the back of the court to just wait it out. But apparently this was too agregious for Ethan so he and his jock friends decided to start taunting me.

This, was a mistake...

They started taunting me about my ethnicty and calling me a Mexican wimp. But the real problem was when they insulted Lisa.

"HEY LESBO" Ethan shouted "WHY DON'T UOU ACTAULLY PARTICIPATE!” 

Then his imbicike friends joined in with the every clever “OH WAIT, SHE’S A USELESS DEAF CHICK. SHE CANT HEAR US'' For whatever reason that was the most clever, funny thing ever to the boys demonstrated by their incessant cackling. 

The gym teacher, of course being, well, a gym teacher, decided to brush it off and continue ogling the Popular Girls. They started targeting us with dodge balls when I got fed up.

I started seeing red and picked up a dodge ball slowly. I wound up, and started throwing. I thought it was the adrenaline or something, because I was throwing them harder then I thought possible. I threw my last ball and knocks down the 6' 280 pound football player that was Ethan. With the impressive feat of strength I blacked out.

When I opened my eyes everyone was staring over me. Lisa knelt next to me, with our gym teacher next to her. I sprung up, looked at the look on my principal's face and started running.

I ran until I reached the door, pushing it open. The security guard at the door grabbed me by my arm and stopped me. He radioed in to the administration and started guiding me to the door. He was shaking my his head looking at me. He walked me to the office and sat me down with Mr. Ark, our principal. He looked at me and looked at the security guard.

"Horace, what happened?" He said looking at the officer, keeping me in his peripheral. The tall bald man started,

"Well Sir, I found this girl running out of the building. She tried to push the door open before I fought her. She wouldn't cooperate, and resisted coming to the office. I suspect she has been using illegal substances. No doubt that shes getting them from across the border." I had my mouth agape.

"Excuse me sir, but you are being absolutely stupid. I don't need you assuming that I'm on drugs just because I'm Mexican. Your racist self needs to get it together and get out of here." Now it was their turn to stare.

"Now, Harper, that is inapropriate! Do not speak to your security guard like that." He picked up his phone and called my parents. At that point I had had enough and leaned back in my chair. I tuned him out while thinking about everything that had just happened.

He put down the phone and looked at me. "Harper, your mother will be here to pick you up soon, pack your things, you won't be back." I looked at him in disbelief then just let it go. I couldn’t fight anymore today. It was too much, I just couldn't. I just looked at him and got up. I went to my locker and made sure to flip them off as I walked out.

My parents arrived soon after. I got in the car silently and we drove home. We got into the house and I headed to my room. My dad stopped me.

"Where do you think you are going, Harper?" He shouted. "Sit down" I complied, sitting across from my parents. They looked at me and my dad started talking.

"Mija. We cannot go on like this anymore. You have never been like us. You are rebellious, disobedient to god, and never obey us. We have tried, Harper. But this has to end. We talked to Father and prayed as soon as we heard the news. And, We have decided that, we are disowning you." At this point my mother broke down into tears. I was trying to suppress the tears from rolling down my face as I looked at him. He just shook his head and pointed to my room. I ran up stairs and started packing.

I packed my clothes, 200 dollars in cash and my laptop and phone. I grabbed as much as i could, tears streaming down my face. I walked downstairs completely packed and my mother walked out side with me. She hugged me wordlessly and slipped the remaining 1,500 dollars from my bank account in my pocket.

"I'm sorry mija..." she wispered. I looked at her, tears streaming. And started walking. I walked until I found The Bridge. It was infamous to locals for the homeless population and when I got there it didn't disappoint. I sat down next to another girl my age. She looked at me,

"What happened?" She said sadly looking at me.

I started talking and didn't stop until I was sobbing with my head on her lap. She looked at me.

"Oh, hun... i am so sorry." I looked at her smiling.

**————————————————————**

After almost five days of sleeping and living under the bridge with my friend, who I had learned was named Charlotte, I was woken up by Charlotte with someone here to see me. I sat up, rubbing sleep from my eyes. 

“L-Lisa?” I signed, darting to my feet. She smiled somberly.

“Hey Harper… I’m really sorry about what happened. Ummm, so, do you want to walk and talk? I have some things to talk to you about” I walked towards her, hugging her and burying my head in her shoulder. Once I was done I looked at her, 

“Yeah, let’s go…” 

After a while of talking we arrived at a cafe downtown. We walked in, and a young Irish woman waved at Lisa. She pulled me over to them and we sat down. We discussed what had happened over a cup of coffee until Claudia, the person we had met, dropped the bomb shell. 

“Harper, we believe you have super powers. I am a representative with the un organization dealing with super heroes, and we would love to Have you on the team. So, what do you say” I looked over at Lisa, unsure, she signed to me, telling me that she would help me every step of the way. 

“Y'know what, if it means I get to kick some bad guy butt, I’m in” I smirked, as Claudia chuckled and shook my hand.


	8. Chapter 5: No Longer Invisible Benji

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m tired and in bio so here’s ur next chapter lmao

##  **Invisabenj**

**Name: benji**

**Superpower: invisibility, flexibility**

**Sexuality: Bi**

**Gender: Non-binary**

**Mental disorder: ADHD, Anxiety**

**Hometown: Tokyo, Japan**

**Race: Japanese**

Benji was abnormal. This is how my teachers put it, but I knew what they really thought. I was strange, weird, an outcast. It was true. I wasn't like most kids. For starters my dads were gay. 

Oh, and then there was my powers. My dad has powers too, so I knew about them, but the people didn't. They just thought I was easily overlooked because, ‘No, there was no way he could become invisible.’ They just thought they didn't notice me. 

And, truth be told I am easily overlooked, I’m definitely smaller then you would expect, only being 5’6” at 17, and I wore what would typically be described as ‘emo’ clothes. But the thing is, I didn't have full control of my powers. So, occasionally I would slip into invisibility, or I would hand someone something and my hand would go a bit weird. I just passed it off as being very flexible or double jointed. 

They still thought I was a freak. A weirdo. The "quiet kid". I would slip through my excruciating day at school barely noticed. Then I would go home. Home was barely better. My dad and Pop would try to make me open up, with good intentions, but it really didn't work. I just didn't want to. So I would go to my room, throw myself onto my bed and go through tumblr. It was my routine. Everyday... I would turn off my lights, and scroll through my phone. I was comfortable. I felt safe. I didn't know what it is with life but it's just all very overwhelming. But when I was home I was safe. 

"Benji!" My dad shouted, "Let's go!" 

I groaned, it was the opening of my dads’ latest bar. My parents had a collection of Gay Bars called Vita ex Machina, life from the machine. It was poetic if you thought about it, life from the machine, how in the modern time of 2035 everyone relied on their phones, and really almost had their life from the tech. 

The bars were uber successful in the ultra modernized city of Tokyo. It was an unusual looking building, but it was somehow satisfying to look at. 

The front was a dark concrete front with electric blue lights pulsing speraticly. In the center above the door way it had a rainbow flag. At first glance it look like any standard cloth flag but at closer glance it was many hexagonal screen tiles. They would alternate through the pride flags ever few seconds in an oddly soothing pulsing wave. The whole bar was oddly soothing to me. 

Even if it was always full of people. Not that I had anything against all the patrons, in fact it was closer to jealously. I wanted to have their confidence, I mean, most of it was probably the alcohol but, even so I wished I could be like that... I was bi, and while I knew my dads would accept me completly I was still reluctant to tell anyone. It was like the simple act of telling them was too much. 

It made me feel sick to my stomach. I was like that. I had zero confidence, just answering questions in class was almost vomit inducing. That was just how I was. As we entered the newest branch of Vita ex Machina I felt giddy. This was how I loved it. Dark. Empty. But, it wouldn't be like this for long. In a few minutes my dad and papa would open the doors and the patrons would stream in. I walked back behind into the makeup room. 

That was where I felt most comfortable. Seeing all the drag queens finishing their makeup. They were so confident. So fabulous, I wanted to be them. As I walked over to my corner one of the drag queens stopped me, I don't recognize him so I figured he was new. 

"Hey, I love your outfit" He complimented. I was surprised, I mean, it was nice but it wasn’t a particularly nice outfit. Just my standard black flannel over a band tee with a pair of black skinny jeans. 

“Thanks," I stammered, "I'm Benji." 

"Oh! you must be Micheal's son! Anyway, I'm Kai, any pronouns are fine. I've heard a lot about you" 

"Oh,how do you know my dad?" 

"Yeah, your dad helped me a lot when I was younger. He helped me get into drag!" At that point I recognized the Italian accent,

"Oh," I said, "you're that guy from Italy my dads were talking about after his trip to Rome." 

He smiled at that, "the one and only!" I was beginning to open up to him when my pop came in and announced that it was five until opening.

"I'll let you go," I said. 

"Yeah, here, put your number in," he said, handing me his phone. I complied before handing it back.

"Bye!" I said walking out into the main bar. It was right before opening and I was exited to see the drag performers. I went out into the now bright bar over to my favorite spot. I got up on top of the cabinets behind the bar. 

Whenever I went out into the actual bar area I would always find a cabinet to sit on, at this point I was really good friends with all the bartenders so they would let me sit up there. As the doors opened all of the patrons started streaming in gawking at all the fancy technology and bright light. Once everyone had settled down my dads started a ridiculous speech about how grateful they were to be able to start this branch. 

Once that was done the drag race started. I was so captivated by the skills of the queens that I didn’t even notice Kai calling my name when he was done preforming. Then I saw the entire crowd staring at me. I panicked. I couldn’t move. I tried to hide it but I guess it was obvious because Kai said something to one of the other queens then got off the stage and walked over. I barely even noticed until he came over and got on top of the cabinet with me. As the other drag queen started talking he looked at me, compassion in his eyes. 

“I’m so sorry,” he said softly, looking me in the eyes. I started crying as I saw the sorrow in his soft gray eyes. I had never been shown so much compassion by a stranger.

He put his arm around my shoulder and led me back stage. Once back there we sat down on one of the couches and broke down. He softly comforted me as I was crying. 

“Shh,” he said “it’s alright” Once I had calmed down he looked to me and asked if I wanted to talk about it. I sat up and looked across the couch. “Yeah,” I said. I had never talked about my social anxiety before with anyone but it felt good to open up. He told me about his low self esteem and body image issues. He told me about how in high school he had become anorexic because of these issues. He told me of his depression and his suicide attempt. 

I felt so free talking to him, I felt like I could be open. It was amazing. Once we had talked me through it he looked at me with his soft eyes and asked 

“would you like to go out on stage with me?” I smiled. 

“Yeah.” We dried out tears, and Kai reapplied his makeup.

“Let’s go,” I said. He put his arm around my shoulder and walked me out. I froze when we got out and I saw the crowd staring at me. But then Kai started talking. He talked about his life. His body image issues. His depression. He told them. And they cheered, this gave me confidence. I could be free, I could be true. When he was done he invited me to the microphone and introduced me. I walked up, wringing my hands with nervousness. When I got to the microphone I looked out. 

“Hi,” I said, earning a few chuckles. “I’m Benji, a few of you may know me, I’m actually the child of the owners” I started talking and barley stopped. I told them about my social anxiety and how Kai had helped my through it. I talked about how I was the outcast. How I felt so alone. They cheered and cheered. It made me feel so amazing. I made the decision. I was gonna tell them. 

Then I did. I was bi, I was non-binary, and I was proud. They cheered and whooped! I felt so free one of the Drag queens even handed me a pride flag. It was amazing, I could even see my dads over in the corner cheering me on. Once I was done Kai took the mic and did the finale for the show. Once we were done everyone headed backstage and was congratulating each other. I was euphoric. When everyone was done my dads came over and congratulated me. It was the most axing feeling in the world. I felt accepted, free, open.

The next few months leading up to my graduation were uneventful, I came out on my Instagram and everyone congratulated me but other than that it was normal. Until my graduation. We had an amazing ceremony and party afterword. 

It was almost midnight and it was just me and Kai sitting in my bedroom together. We were just talking until we heard a ruckus coming from outside. It sounded like more voices. When we both went walking out we saw three new people dressed in varying degrees of costumes. They were talking frantically with my dads. 

Somehow Kai seemed to recognized them. He ran forward to them and immediately looked at a Latina girl in red and green. He looked back and forth between the other two 

“Who is she!” he exclaimed, the girl with shoulder length red hair wearing a strange looking dress looked at him exasperatedly 

“First of all, Rude! And second that’s Harper Lopez, she goes by Pepper.” She said. She seemed to have a soft motherly feel about her while at the same time she was able to scold you like nobody’s business. 

Then the Indian woman in a white and gold Indian kurti looked over at me and asked 

“Are we gonna acknowledge him?” She was Rather pointed about it, 

“Oh!” They all exclaimed at the same time, 

“Yeah, they’re kinda the whole reason we’re here” she continued. 

“Hi,” I said sheepishly, “I’m Benji, They/Them” 

“Hi Benji!” The red head exclaimed “I’m Claudia! Although in official situations I’m Whisperet” I was confused,

“What do you mean official situations?” The Indian women looked to my dads and asked incredulously“have you not told them?!” She seemed shocked, My dad looked at her chuckling and said “Well... We were Going to tell them now, but you guys showed up.” At that point I had had enough, 

“Tell me what!?” I exclaimed. They all turned around to look at me, then Kai piped up 

“I could tell him?” My parents looked at each other and then looked back at us. 

“Sure” they said. Me and Kai walked up to my room and sat down facing each other on my bed. 

“Well” He started, “you know how you have super powers?” 

“Yeah,” I said curiously 

“Well there are many people that have powers, Claudia, Harper, and Karthika out there are some of them, and since we got word of kind of a threat here we wanted you to join us and help for our team”

“Oh! Okay, well I mean I’ll get to spend more time with you,” he smiled warmly, “And I can put my powers to good use, so I guess I’m in!” 

“Amazing, let’s go tell the others!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment and kudos pls!


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